5G technology and how it changes the world

Can you believe that 5G technology will provide data 100 times faster than 4G? Well that’s the claim being made by scientists who should know these things. The fifth generation of mobile phone networks will see the end of app stalling, video playback cutting out and hopefully the loading sign will disappear when we enter the new age of mobile phone technology.

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5G Innovation Centre

The UK are taking this technology very seriously. The government has created a multimillion pound 5G Innovation Centre at the University of Surrey to help harness and develop the new tech which some believe will lead to connected smart cities and driverless cars.

Harmonisation of the radio spectrum

The basics of data transfer over the airwaves are that the radio waves are split into bands of different frequencies. Each band has been assigned to different tasks such as maritime, aeronautical, television and navigation signals. All of this is regulated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). At the moment this system is a bit messy because when new technologies have arrived, they’ve been squished into available gaps. To pave the way for 5G phones the ITU has restricted the radio networks.

100 times faster

The expectation that 5G will run 100 times faster is why everyone’s so excited by the new technology. Speeds of 800Gbps are expected which is way above the promises that Samsung made in 2013 when they said that 1Gbps would be possible with 5G. Even with Samsung’s low estimation a high-def movie could be downloaded in 30 seconds. With the speeds that scientists are now expecting, the same movie would be downloaded in the blink of an eye.

Bright future

By 2020 between 50 billion and 100 billion devices will be connected to the internet. With this in mind connections running on different frequencies will have to be established to meet demand.